


Past and Possibilities

by Alphum



Series: JayKyle Week 2020 [3]
Category: Batman - All Media Types, DCU, DCU (Comics), Green Lantern - All Media Types, Red Hood and the Outlaws (Comics)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Pacific Rim Fusion, Angst, Blood and Injury, Discord: JayKyle Week 2020, Discussion of past violence, Drift Compatibility, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Past Character Death, Soulmates, discussion of injuries, no beta we die like men, no knowledge of au necessary to read
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-07
Updated: 2020-10-07
Packaged: 2021-03-07 22:53:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,408
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26885428
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Alphum/pseuds/Alphum
Summary: Kyle Rayner is drift compatible with legendary Jaeger pilot Jason Todd. The only catch is that Kyle was pretty sure Jason was dead, killed in the same mission that killed his copilot, Roy Harper.Apparently not, and now it's up to Kyle to pull Jason from the Drift.The Pacific Rim AU that nobody asked for that you're getting anywayDay 4 of JayKyle Week: Soulmates
Relationships: Dick Grayson/Wally West, Kyle Rayner/Jason Todd, Roy Harper/Kyle Rayner/Jason Todd, past Roy Harper/Jason Todd - Relationship
Series: JayKyle Week 2020 [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1955305
Comments: 13
Kudos: 108





	Past and Possibilities

**Author's Note:**

> For anyone that doesn't know what Pacific Rim is, [ here's ](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=bGbU_20InKM) a quick crash course for you! This explains the basics about the universe!

Having a 100% match was unprecedented. It was rare, had only happened a handful of times. Kyle could remember the stats quite well. 100% neural match pilot pairs were the most competent, the most lethal, and the most formidable Jaeger pilots out there. The Pilots of Robin’s Dive, Dick Grayson and Wally West had a very high neural match percentage and had a matching kill record to go with it. One of the few 100% pairs had been Roy Harper and Jason Todd in Red Volley.

He’d been under the impression that both pilots had been killed in Red Volley’s last mission. It had been a bloodbath, Red Volley leaping in the way of a kill shot to protect Robin’s Dive. He’d heard both pilots had drowned.

But apparently not, if Kyle had a 100% match with Jason Todd.

General Wayne looked pale.

Kyle remembered the stats easily. Jason Todd had been one of General Wayne’s proteges. He’d been his student, his Jaeger partner, and his son. 

It wasn’t hard to read the discomfort in General Wayne’s shoulders. This was obviously a sore topic for him. Kyle couldn’t help but wonder exactly how badly Jason had been hurt in his last mission. Kyle shot Hal a look, but Hal wasn’t looking at him. He was looking at General Wayne, jaw clenched just as tightly as his fists.

Seeing the same expression on their faces for the first time, Kyle realized how similar they looked. They both had strong jaws and square faces, but more than that, they carried the same dark shadows under their eyes and the same silvered hair at their temples.

“Bruce--” Hal stepped forward.

“Don’t.” General Wayne’s voice was soft but it was deadly sharp.

“How?” A third, stiff voice spoke up from behind them.

Kyle turned.

He’d seen Dick Grayson and Wally West on TV countless times. They were some of the most successful veteran pilots, had been fighting for years now. Dick Grayson and Wally West were always smiling broadly, bodies at ease, demeanors comfortable even on the scenes of horrible wreckages. They were confident in their abilities that they had minimized the wreckage around them. They were comfortable with each other and they were confident in their skills. He’d never seen them look as serious as they did now.

Wally was frowning darkly, hands in his pockets. He stood back in tacit support of Dick, who was stepping forward. Dick who looked angry. His brow was lowered and his hackles were raised. He looked ready to fight, every inch of him coiled and ready to strike. The two of them looked deadly. Lethal. They were more than a little intimidating.

General Wayne clenched his fists instead of answering, not looking at his eldest son.

General Prince stepped in. “Gentlemen. Let us convene in the conference room.” Her gentle voice was not a suggestion. It was an order.

Kyle didn’t move until after Hal did. Whatever Kyle was walking into here, the safest place for him was at Hal’s side. 

General Prince ushered them into the conference room but stopped Dick and Wally from entering. “Bruce.” She said softly. “You are Jason’s medical power of attorney. This is confidential. Dick needs your permission to be here.”

So he’d lived, but he needed a medical power of attorney. Kyle wondered just how badly Jason had been injured.

“Dick and Wally can stay.” General Wayne’s back was to the room. He was looking out the hurricane windows. “Hal too.” He added.

General Prince ushered them all in and shut the door firmly behind them. She shut the blinds over the glass as well. Her stance shifted between one step and the next and suddenly she looked just as tired as General Wayne and Hal. “Bruce, I--”

“Diana.” He stopped her with a word. “Please. Take a seat, everyone.” He didn’t move from his spot by the windows.

Dick Grayson ignored him and rounded the table, hurrying towards General Wayne. At the last second, he visibly restrained himself from tackling his father and just hugged him instead.

“I’ll make coffee.” Hal announced, starting to rummage through the cabinets.

General Prince joined him.

Hal hesitantly made his way to the table.

Wally West, pilot extraordinaire, smiled at him. “Rough first day?” He nodded his head sympathetically to indicate the room at large.

Kyle exhaled, letting out the sigh that had been building in his chest. “You could say that.”

“I’m Wally.” He held out a hand.

“Kyle.” He shook his hand firmly.

Wally was tall and lean, had a head full of bright red hair and freckles scattered across his skin that were almost as bright. He was wearing the regular pilot uniform, a gray jumpsuit with patches on the front and arms. His had the Robin’s Dive logo on the left breast and a name tape that read WEST across the right. Kyle knew from experience that underneath he wore a tightly fitted base layer that went under the Jaeger pilot gear. The coveralls were good for prep as well as day to day activities. “C’mon, have a seat.” Wally motioned him to the table and plopped down in a chair. “I’m sure Dick’ll talk Bats around and then Di’ll smooth everything over.”

“Right.” Kyle hoped he was right. He certainly seemed confident enough, especially with how casually he was referring to some of the most powerful people on the planet.

Wally seemed to be forcing some of his cheer, but that was enough to lighten up the room a bit. Together with General Prince’s optimism and Hal’s good nature, Kyle was almost relaxed when Dick and General Wayne joined them at the table. Almost.

Dick Grayson was smiling but it was tense. His eyes were sharp when they snapped to Kyle, assessing him like he was a threat that needed to be taken out. 

“So, Rayner!” Dick’s cheer was almost convincing enough to hide the steel under it. “You got a 100% neural match with my little brother!” Right. Dick Grayson, Boy Wonder the First. Bruce Wayne’s first protege, first ward, and first success. Some would argue his biggest.

“Looks like it.” Kyle nodded. No good denying it.

“Richard.” General Prince said. 

Dick sat, narrowing his eyes at Kyle.

“I apologize for not greeting you sooner, Kyle.” General Prince smiled warmly at him.

He hurried to stand.

Hal on one side of him and Wally on the other hauled him back down.

“We aren’t big on formalities, kid.” Hal snickered. “Di, Kyle. Ky, Diana.”

Kyle shot him a sidelong look but nodded politely to Diana. “General.” 

Her smile widened. “Hal is very fond of you. I can see why. Now, Kyle, this situation is highly unusual. You’ve been matched with a pilot who’s out of commission.” Her smile began to fade. “Jason is… a special case.” She sighed. “He is very important to many of us, especially to Bruce. I am sure you can recall the incident.”

Kyle could recite every word of the log backwards and forwards. There were a number of things that made that mission unique, not the least of which that Jason had survived.

Diana closed her eyes and took a deep breath, steadying herself before she looked at Kyle again. “Jason is in the hospital. He has been since that mission. He’s in a coma.”

Kyle blinked at her, stunned. “I…” He trailed off. “Can I see him?”

Jason’s room was in the underground infirmary. The infirmary was basically a nuclear missile bunker, as far underground and as Kaiju-proof as they could get it. Kyle expected the room to be creepy and dim so far underground, but he was surprised to find it was cheery and warm. The walls were plastered in posters and photos and there were several comfortable chairs that had been packed in around the stasis pod. 

Jason Todd laid in the stasis pod, dressed in a clean sweatsuit, recently shaved under the oxygen mask strapped over his mouth and nose. There was an ugly handmade blanket thrown over the foot of the stasis pod, like one would throw over the feet of someone in a hospital bed. Though useless, it was meaningful. A blonde woman sat at Jason Todd’s bedside, reading. She looked up when they entered.

“Hey B!” She smiled. “And Kyle, right?” Stephanie Brown. She was another one of General Wayne’s miracle prodigy pilots. 

“Yeah. Pilot Brown, right?”

She made a face as she stood. “It’s Steph. So the rumors are true then?” She glanced between the two of them. “Wild. I’ll give you the room then. Gonna be at practice later, B?” She scooped up her books and piled them on Jason’s bedside table. 

General Wayne grunted.

“Cool, I’ll let Timmy know. Good to meet you, Ky!” She pecked the top of Jason’s stasis tube and General Wayne’s cheek as she left, not seeming bothered by his chill demeanor. 

General Wayne sat in an overstuffed gray armchair, close to the head of the stasis pod. He looked down at Jason, face inscrutable. 

Kyle took a moment to examine Jason more closely. He’d seen him on TV hundreds of times, but this was different. It felt like he was looking down at Jason in a coffin, not a coma. But for the gentle rise and fall of his chest, he could be dead. But for the unnatural stillness, he could be asleep.

He’d never met Jason before, only ever seen him on TV in interviews and videos. He knew nothing about him other than the public facts he’d absorbed from mission reports and late night TV, maybe the occasional YouTube video or viral Instagram video. He didn’t know Jason Todd at all, but something in his belly said that seeing him like this, so still, so calm, was unusual. He knew it down to his bones with the same certainty he had for solid facts. He loved his mother. Kaiju were terrifying. The sky was blue. Jason Todd was not supposed to be still. 

It was  _ wrong _ .

It was unsettling.

Kyle wasn’t normally a restless person, but the longer Jason was still, the more on edge he felt in his own skin. He stepped forward and pressed his hand against the glass between them, looking down at Jason, urging him to open his eyes.

He didn’t move.

“Hey B. This the new guy?” He was startled out of his reverie by a new voice. When he turned around, Barbara Gordon was in the doorway.

“Oh my god.” He blurted before he could stop himself.

She looked at him and smiled. “Hi. Kyle, right?”

He was in the same room as a legend. He was breathing the same air as Barbara fucking Gordon. “Yeah, I, uh.” He stared at her for a minute before realizing he was gaping like an idiot. “Shit, sorry.” He broke his gaze and shook his head to try and clear it. “I’m, uh, I’m a big fan.” Barbara Gordon had killed a Category 4 Kaiju solo after it had ripped her copilot, her father, out of the cockpit. She’d taken it down at great cost, losing her father. Her resulting injuries, physical from the fight, and neural from the driftlash, had put her in a wheelchair. She hadn’t let that stop her, simply picking up and becoming one of the foremost drift experts in the world.

She laughed softly. “Don’t worry about it.” She had brown eyes and a warm smile. She was wearing casual clothes with a decommissioned pilot jacket on top, showing her current rank as a Lieutenant Colonel. “I’m here to do a few tests on you two. Please, have a seat.” She propelled herself forward into the room with an easy push to her large wheels. “Hi Jay.” She patted the foot of the stasis pod and then went over to the stack of equipment in the corner.

Kyle obediently sat. “Tests?” He asked.

“Mmhm. It was an error that Jason’s files were available for matching, but he’s had so many brain scans and neural maps done that we’re not sure what in his file you matched with. As I’m sure you learned in training, Jason is an excellent pilot because of his neural flexibility. He can drift with pretty much anyone he wants to, given enough time to prepare himself. If you matched with one of his old scores that reflects this, it’s no wonder you matched with him.”

“But?” Kyle prodded.

Barbara sighed. “But,” she continued. “his compatibility and flexibility dropped significantly after… what happened. His most recent records, the best match he had with anyone was 18%, and that was with Bruce.” She nodded to General Wayne. “So if you really do have a full match with him…” She trailed off meaningfully.

“If I do… then what? He’s still in a coma.” Kyle pointed out.

Barbara smiled. It was warm and full of hope. “If you do, then you might be able to help him.”

Kyle underwent several hours of tests. He got pretty comfortable sitting in his little armchair, just resting his head against the padded side and trying not to scratch the itchy electrodes that were plastered all over his face and neck.

Eventually, Barbara sat back in her chair and let out a deep sigh, steepling her fingers together. “So. You two do have a perfect neural match.” She announced.

“Alright,” Kyle sat forward in his chair, perking up. “you said if we were really a full match that I could help him. How do I help him?” He asked.

She raised an eyebrow at him. “So, you don’t want any more background information, any more details, any analysis, nothing. You just want to get straight to it?” 

“I mean…” Kyle considered. As he’d been sitting at Jason’s bedside, the sense of unease in his stomach had grown. As it had grown, so had Kyle’s understanding of Jason. He knew, innately, that Jason would be annoyed with so many people hanging out around his bedside under normal circumstances. If he were awake now, he’d kick Bruce in the knee and snipe at Barbara for being a pest and fucking with his neural headset. He’d fuss and complain and straighten his sheets and then when he was bored antagonizing the people around him, he’d reach out and grab the first novel on his bedside table and crack it open. He didn’t know what more that Barbara and her analysis could tell him that he didn’t just  _ know  _ about Jason. “Yeah.” He said simply. 

He’d been asleep for long enough.

Barbara pursed her lips for a moment before her smile broke free of it. “Yeah, I can definitely see it.”

“So how do I do it?” He asked.

Barbara clicked her tongue at him. “How else? You’re going to drift.”

Kyle had drifted before, of course he had. He’d drifted with AIs in the pilot program, he’d drifted with smaller machines, he’d even drifted with a few classmates and a few of his mentors. He was used to drifting being a little awkward and uncomfortable, just a little wrong footed.

This was nothing like that.

His mind linked with Jason’s with such ease that he almost didn’t notice. There was no pain or discomfort that he usually associated with drifting. His mind melded seamlessly with Jason’s. He didn’t notice his eyes creeping shut as Jason’s coma rolled over him.

Kyle found himself in a city. It looked like an American city-- Seattle maybe? The skies were gray and the air was still. The streets were devoid of cars. The city was quiet. Everything seemed dim somehow. 

Kyle wandered. He didn’t know how long he walked. He lost track of time as the city slowly changed around him. Kyle stopped noticing the morphing and shifting around him as he walked. After a while, his wandering acquired a purpose. He felt like there was somewhere he needed to go, something he needed to find. 

He realized at some point that the world was slightly grayscale, just less saturated with color than it should be. Kyle stood out keenly against the dull colors, though nothing he was wearing was particularly bright. As he walked, he stood out more and more as the world lost more and more color around him.

That’s how he found him. 

The street was almost completely black and white around him. He was solid, real in a way the buildings around them weren’t. He was watching the only other person there.

Roy Harper was as dim and faded as their surroundings. He was slightly staticky and a little transparent, utterly ghostly in this empty city. His smile was bright but his skin was pale and the color of his hair was dull. He was talking, softly, words distorted by static like they’d been remembered so many times Jason was forgetting the original memory. 

“...--st day ever, Jaybird. Se--sly. I had so much fun. --again sometime.” Roy’s bright smile went tender as he raised an intangible hand.

Jason moved into it. “I had a lot of fun too.” His voice was hoarse.

Kyle’s heart ached savagely in his chest as he watched the memory dissipate, as he watched  _ Roy _ dissipate, dissolving into static that diffused into the air. 

Jason’s shoulders hunched as his head bowed. His back shook as he cried softly in the wake of his husband’s disappearance. Because that’s what they’d been, Jason’s memories informed him. Not just friends. Not just lovers. Husbands. Partners, in every sense of the word.

Kyle’s heart ached for Jason. It went out to him. More than just metaphorically. 

The world around them shifted abruptly enough to make Kyle stumble from sudden vertigo. Then they were in Kyle’s apartment, the tiny, shitty, comfy one he shared with his mom back in New York City.

The difference was jarring. The Rayner apartment was filled with colors so bright and bold they nearly blazed, acutely different from the soft, staticky grayscale of Jason’s memories running thin. More than that, the apartment was alive around them. The air was heavy with something savory and loaded with garlic, a soft sizzle coming from a plan on the stove. The air conditioner whistled softly in the window. The TV buzzed with soft, garbled noise, playing a cheery tune that was every commercial jingle all in one. There was white noise coming from every direction, the bustle of neighbors, the hum of a vacuum somewhere upstairs, the soft cry of a baby from the downstairs neighbor, music playing from his mother’s room, honks and sirens from traffic outside. It was warm here too, which was strange. It wasn’t a physical feeling, more of an emotional warmth that he associated with his mom’s hugs.

Jason turned and looked at him, utterly shocked. His eyes and cheeks were wet with tears. “Who--” He couldn’t even complete his sentence.

“I’m Kyle.” He said simply. 

Jason stared at him.

“I’m here to help.”

“What--” Jason looked around. He blinked a few times. Kyle could feel him through the drift, stirring whatever haze he’d been trapped in. “Roy.” He said. Panic flared through Jason and raced through the drift, making Kyle’s heart jump. “Where’s Roy?” He demanded. “Where’s Roy?” His panic was bleaching the color from the room around them and the drift began to destabilize as he drifted out of neural alignment.

Kyle gritted his teeth as pain bit into his head. “Jason, hey, try not to panic.” He grabbed his arms, trying to steady him and use a physical touch to realign them.

As soon as he touched him, panic spiked through Jason and into the drift. “No.” Jason looked horrified. “No, no, no, we can’t be drifting, no, no, I’m supposed to be drifting with Roy, no, no--”

Panic and anger and  _ despair _ ripped through the drift and dug into Kyle. He gasped in pain and staggered back. He was surprised he wasn’t bleeding because it felt like he should be. “Jason, wait--”

“No!” Jason yelled.

It was like a bomb went off.

Emotions rushed out of Jason with so much power that it was staggering, it was stunning, it was incredible, it was painful as Jason rejected him with every synapse and fiber of his being. Kyle was abruptly shoved out of alignment, immediately thrust from the drift and into consciousness. He bolted upright and spluttered as he tried to inhale air but choked on his own blood instead. He curled up over his lap and coughed, trying to clear his airways of his sudden, torrential nosebleed. Pain lanced through his head with every movement and he groped at his forehead, yanking off the connection headpiece. The pain dulled immediately as soon as he pulled the fragmented connection away.

By the time he was done retching and hacking, he’d been manhandled onto a hospital bed and was surrounded by nurses. One of them was wiping at his face and the gauze was coming away bloody enough for him to realize that he was bleeding from his eyes as well as his nose. 

“Hey, you okay kid? You good?” Oh good, Hal was there.

Kyle coughed when he tried to speak, choking on more blood. How much was there?

“Alright, alright, just rest kiddo, just rest.” Hal soothed. “Rest, I’ll take care of everything else.”

That sounded like a good plan. With a headache rolling over him, he succumbed to unconsciousness.

-

Kyle shouldn’t be there. He was technically on bedrest. He could be court-marshalled if they found him here, could be expelled from the program altogether if General Wayne caught him near his son. But Kyle felt an irresistible pull towards Jason. He couldn’t ignore it. Luck was on his side. He slipped and slid around every guard patrol, managed to slip around every camera, got through every door he needed to without leaving a digital footprint. Luck was on his side up until he entered Jason’s room. 

It was the middle of the night; he’d expected it to be empty.

“You owe me twenty bucks.” Wally informed Dick with a grin. His features were barely visible in the dark room, side lit only by the displays around Jason’s bed.

Dick sighed and fished out his wallet, passing Wally a folded bill. “So.” Dick stood. His darker skin and hair helped him blend more into the shadows than Wally and it was hard to Kyle to tell exactly where he was standing. He could make out one thing though.

Kyle was taller than him.

That made Dick no less menacing. 

Maybe General Wayne wasn’t the only one he should have been preparing for. Jason Todd’s older brother could get him in just as much trouble. And, because he wasn’t a general, he could probably get away with beating the shit out of Kyle if he wanted to. And now it was two on one, because wherever Dick Grayson went, Wally West would follow.

Jason’s bed behind them caught his eye. The stasis tube had been replaced with an actual hospital bed. Jason was still wearing an oxygen mask but he was also wearing padded cuffs that tethered his wrists and ankles to the bed with matching straps across his chest and hips. His hands and knuckles were bruised, as were his forehead and jaw.

“What happened?” He blurted out, taking an anxious step closer to the bed. He couldn’t stay away, but the threat of Dick and Wally protecting their little brother was a more imminent concern.

Wally tilted his head. His red hair shone in the dim light of the displays. “He woke up.” Wally shrugged. “You were suffering from neural whiplash and a bad recoil, I’m not surprised you didn’t notice. He woke up suddenly in an unfamiliar place without his copilot after a drift with a stranger. It’s not surprising he started swinging.”

“Not surprising to anyone who knows him.” Dick shifted his weight, leaning back against the frame of Jason’s bed. This cast a little more light on him, enough to highlight his features as he looked down at his brother.

“What happened?” Wally asked.

Kyle swallowed as he weighed his options. They’d talked this much. The chances of them attacking him were decreasing the longer he stayed. They seemed more focused on Jason than on Kyle. Factor that into their protectiveness and… they just might be willing to help. But at the same time, he didn’t want to betray Jason’s confidence before ever even officially meeting him. He licked his lips uncertainly. “I need help.” He said instead.

An hour later found Wally returning to the dark room shortly after Dick had waved Kyle into hiding from the overnight nurse on her rounds. Dick snatched the backpack away from Wally and dug through it. His fingers were deft and comfortable on the foreign tech as he spread out equipment. He barely needed to look at it as he went, hooking Jason up with unprecedented gentleness. 

Wally wasn’t nearly as careful, sticking electrodes to Kyle’s raw temples firmly. 

The two of them together were far more efficient than the tech team had been hours before. 

“Alright, you ready?” Wally asked, sunny voice more sarcastic than Kyle would like.

“Yeah.” Kyle pressed as close to the bed as he could.

Dick rolled his eyes. “Here.” He brushed Kyle aside and fiddled with the bed. He freed Jason’s left arm and folded the rails on that side down. “Climb in.” He said, sounding begrudging.

Wally nodded with agreement. “Good idea. Physical touch helps facilitate the drift.”

Kyle climbed up hesitantly and laid on Jason’s left side. They were pressed together from knee to shoulder, Kyle facing in towards Jason, who was on his back.

“Ready?” Wally asked again.

Kyle took a deep breath. “Ready.” He laid his head down on Jason’s shoulder.

Wally didn’t count him in. Kyle dropped into the drift between one breath and the next, slipping into the shared drift between them.

He expected to see Seattle again. Instead, he was in the San Francisco shatterdome. It looked different than the one he’d been in, moments before. This one was older, brighter, not nearly as beaten or battered by time. The shapes and surroundings were more real here, in this memory. As he walked, flashes of memories rippled around him. A ghostly shape of General Wayne biting into a hamburger before he was broken up by a ripple of laughter. Dick Grayson explaining something with broad, excited hand gestures dissolving into air. Barbara Gordon carrying Tim Drake on her back before she broke into a run and disappeared. Korey Anders and Artemis Bana-Mighdall carrying Kent Clarks on their shoulders and yelling indistinctly until they vanished around a corner.

As Kyle walked, the landscape around him began to shift, influenced by his own, more current memories. Architecture blurred and blended, slowly warping into what Kyle remembered from the Shatterdome.

He found Jason in Jaeger bay 2. Jason was sitting halfway up some empty Jaeger scaffolding, looking out at a pristine Red Volley. Jason made no movements, but Kyle knew he knew he was there, knew with a certainty that could only come with sharing your brain with another. Kyle scaled the scaffolding. Despite never having climbed it before, he knew exactly how to get up, exactly where to grab to make it up as quickly as possible. Finally, he sat down on the I beam next to Jason.

“What happened?” Jason asked.

Kyle sighed and looked up at Red Volley. She was polished and crisp in a way he’d never seen. He could picture the damage on her from the report with ease and then suddenly, that damage was spreading across her. Cracks and gashes across her limbs and chassis, puncture marks through her engine casings and muscle strands. They both watched as she was shredded before their eyes. 

When the external damage was completely represented, Kyle spoke. “You stopped a blow that would have killed Dick and Wally.” He said. “The consequence was that you got the blow instead. It cut deep through her chest. Then your legs got taken out. The escape pods were damaged by the next blow that knocked you down underwater, so you couldn’t eject. You two drowned. They managed to bring you back.”

“Roy’s dead.” Jason said dully, pulling the words Kyle didn’t want to say out of his head.

“He didn’t make it.” Kyle confirmed in a whisper.

They sat in silence for a moment, Jason inspecting the damage to his Jaeger that he and his husband had died in. 

“It’s really been two years?” Jason asked, again pulling the knowledge from Kyle’s head. Kyle hadn’t realized how in sync they were, for them to be able to pass effortlessly back and forth through each other’s knowledge like this.

“Yeah. Things are getting rough out there.” Kyle pictured a floating map in front of them of the pacific ocean, willing little push pins into place at each Shatterdome around the periphery of the ocean. “Robin’s Spire covers San Francisco up to Alaska. Titan’s Justice covers San Francisco down through Central America.”

“Titan’s Justice…” Jason frowned in thought.

With a blink of an eye, Kyle conjured a three-dimensional image of Titan’s Justice. It was a formidable Jaeger with six weaponized arms. It took four pilots to run and might not have been possible if it weren’t for the bond between Tim Drake, Connor Lex-Kent, Bart Allen, and Cassie Sandsmark. 

“Looks fuckin’ dumb.” Jason snorted.

Kyle laughed. “A bit. She’s gorgeous in action though.” Kyle let the images in front of them fade away. 

“It’ll be nice to see.” Jason murmured thoughtfully. 

“Whenever you’re ready.” Kyle murmured back. He could feel Jason’s reluctance and reticence in every sinapse in his brain. He knew he wasn’t ready yet.

“I’m not.” Jason replied aloud to Kyle’s train of thought. “I’m not. I don’t know if I’ll ever be. But I have to.”

“I know. I’m sorry.”

“Me fucking too.” Jason said bitterly, bowing his head. “I don’t--” he cut himself off but Kyle heard him anyway.  _ I don’t want to leave Roy. If I leave here, then he’s really dead, he’s really gone, I’ll really never see him again, I’ll never see him smile again, I’ll never see my husband again, I’ll never see him, never see him, never, never, never. _

Kyle swallowed past the sudden lump in his throat, blinked through the burn of tears in his eyes. He could feel exactly how much Jason loved him and exactly how much it hurt to think of returning to a waking life without his best friend.  _ What is there for me without Roy? _

“There’s your family.” Kyle murmured. Bruce. Babs. Dick. Cass. Tim. Steph. Duke. Dami. Alfie. Kate. Kori. Artemis. Kent. Donna… Kyle. They didn’t make up for Roy’s absence, but neither did Roy’s absence mean there was nothing left for him. 

“I know.” Jason whispered.  _ I’m scared. _

“It’s okay to be scared.” Kyle held out his hand to Jason. “But I’ll be right here.” Right here no matter what. Jason looked at his hand for a long moment before reaching out and taking it. Kyle felt something shift in Jason as their fingers intertwined, could feel that it was Jason consciously letting go of his dreams, his coma, his  _ husband _ . 

Jason was wracked with such grief that Kyle couldn’t withhold a sob as Jason crumpled against him. 

“It’s okay. It’s okay.” Kyle promised him as the Shatterdome dissolved around them. “It’s okay.” He promised as they floated upwards together. It was like they were being released from the breech itself, having to swim up against the currents towards the surface. “It’s okay.” Kyle promised as Jason started to wake up and started to panic. He’d never known a world without Roy. “It’s okay.” Kyle promised as he opened his eyes, surfacing entirely from the drift even as they were still connected at the neural level. “It’s okay. It’s okay.” Kyle promised Jason, wiping the tears away that were spilling from his eyes even before they fluttered open. Jason’s beautiful green eyes rendered him breathless. 

“It’s okay.” Jason rasped back to Kyle.

_ It’s okay. _ They thought together, their last thought in unison before the neural bridge was disengaged. 

“It’s okay.” Kyle grinned past his tears, pressing their foreheads together.

_ It’s okay.  _ A third voice that nobody could hear whispered to them both as Roy watched his husband reach out to his new copilot.  _ It’s okay. _

**Author's Note:**

> god if i tried to get everythign i wanted into a oneshot id be here for a year, so more to come!! i had a lot of fun with the birdflash but JayKyle is where it's at <3 <3 stay tuned for more pacrim au <3  
> let me know what you liked!! also let me know what Jaeger teams you're interested in seeing!! I've got several in the works, but im open to suggestions and also open to dope Jaeger (or Kaiju) names!


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